A 50-Year Study Sheds New Light on the Link Between Exercise and Depression

According to a new 50-year study published in JAMA Psychiatry, people who exercise exhibit fewer depressive symptoms over the course of their lives.

Researchers from the UK and Canada looked at 11,000 people born in the same week in 1958, tracking them for the next 50 years. The participants were polled on their exercise habits at four different points in their lives: ages 23, 33, 42 and 50. They answered questions regarding any depressive symptoms they were experiencing, like irritability, fatigue, anxiety and low mood.

At every age, those who exercised more reported fewer symptoms of depression. And for those who increased exercise between any of the intervals researchers tracked? They reported fewer depressive signs at the next milestone age. So, a 23-year-old who ups her exercise regimen exhibited fewer depression symptoms at age 33. Increasing workouts at any age is beneficial; those who went from exercising zero times a week to three times a week had a 19 percent lower odds of depression in just five years’ time. The researchers suggest docs might add exercise to their depression treatment plans, but you can add it (or step it up) in your daily life right now. It’s never too late to get even healthier.

Worth noting here: This study is just correlation, not causation. It's totally possible that exercising can help manage or mitigate signs of depression. It's also just as likely that people who live with depression have less energy or motivation to exercise in the first place—meaning that if you exercise regularly, it's because you're not depressed, rather than the exercise actually eradicating or fending off depression.

That being said, there are tons of reasons to exercise beyond the possibility that it might help you manage depressive symptoms. And if it does in fact help you manage your mental health? All the better.